International Top Five - Casino Hits Trip Aces

December 6th, 2006

A slow week for Casino Royale with only four openings, and only one of those in a major market. In Japan the film had to settle for second place with $2.34 million on 443 screens over the weekend and $3.25 million in total; this was a tiny margin behind local film, Love and Honor. The film also opened in a trio of African markets: South Africa with $509,000 on 77 screens, Kenya, $59,000 on 8, and Nigeria with $44,000 on 4. (Although I've received an e-mail saying the movie made $25 million there and I can earn 12.5% of that if I help a certain theatre owner smuggle it out of the country.) The film's best market remains the U.K. where it added $10.51 million on 506 screens for a total of $73.45 million. The film has already topped Die Another Day in that markets and is gunning for Dead Man's Chest, which ended its run in the market with $98.63 million. Overall, the film earned an easy first place with $43.73 million on 6728 screens in 53 markets for a total of $194.65 million. And with openings in Australia, South Korea, Italy, Mexico and other significant markets left to go, it should have no trouble topping $300 million before long.

Flushed Away entered the top five for the first time in its run with $14.73 million on 2736 screens in 23 markets for a total of $24.23 million. The film opened in second place in the U.K. with $6.15 million on 468 screens and in Spain with $2.04 million on 441. On the other hand, it had to settle for second in France with $2.7 million on 608 screens. The film is running behind both Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit meaning it will have to rely on home market numbers to show a profit.

Borat slipped a spot to third with $9.00 million on 2312 screens in 29 markets for a total of $96.48 million internationally while its worldwide total hit $210.69 million. The film didn't have any major openings this weekend, but it did remain in first place in Australia with $2.39 million on 292 screens for a two-week total of $8.78 million.

Happy Feet also climbed into the top five for the first time with $8.55 million on 2659 screens in 17 markets for a total of $13.81 million. Almost all of its growth came from two markets, Italy and Germany. It earned second place in both markets with $1.77 million on 484 screens in the former and $1.55 million on 662 screens in the latter.

The Departed grew by 23% over the weekend but was knocked back into fifth place with $8.49 million on 2406 screens in 39 markets for a total of $93.49 million. Nearly half of that came from France where it the film earned a close second place with $4.2 million on 629 screens over the weekend.